Using Social
Software to Get the
your Word Out
Dr. Matthew Ganis
IBM – ganis@us.ibm.com
Fast Changes - Fierce Challenges
Corporations Sharing Expertise to Help
Non-Profits Survive and Thrive
March 2009
(slides available at: http://www.slideshare.net/ganis)



What do we mean by “Social Software”
What can I do with it ?
Does it work ?
What is Social Networking?
Social networking is the grouping of individuals into
specific groups, like small rural communities or a
neighborhood subdivisions
This computer-mediated communication has
become very popular with social sites like MySpace
and Facebook, media sites like Flickr and YouTube,
and commercial sites like Amazon.com and eBay.
What do we want to do ?
Get our word out
 Build a network of friends and supporters
 Save some money (Working cheaper)

Where did it start ?
What are some of the Social Options?
Twitter
Information dissemination
Wiki’s
and blogs
Facebook
Social
(connect or reconnect)
Linkedin
Information Sharing
Flickr
Plaxo
YouTube
Collaboration
Ning
“Pushing” Information
What is Twitter ?
Twitter is a social networking or microblogging
service that allows users to send small updates
(messages) about what they are currently doing.
Twitter does this by sending short text messages
(140 characters in length) called "tweets", to your
friends, or "followers."
Number of people
following me
Number of people
I’m following
How can you use this?
Sign up for Twitter (it’s free)
Announce it on your website
Start Tweeting:
- “Planning the Memory Walk for Sept 1st”
- “Memory walk is this week, check out http://....”
- “car wash at Fishkill firehouse to benefit Alz Assoc”
Blogs
A "Blog" is an abbreviated version of "weblog," which is
a term used to describe web sites that maintain an
ongoing chronicle of information.
A blog is a frequently updated, personal website
featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles
on other Web sites. They can range from the personal
to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or
a whole range of subjects.
Are people doing this?


70 million weblogs
About 120,000 new weblogs each day, or...
 1.4

1.5 million posts per day, or...
 17

new blogs every second
posts per second
Growing from 35 to 75 million blogs in just under
one year
Is anybody reading?

50 Million Americas (30% of Internet
users) read blogs
 The
average blog reader, views 77 more
pages than the average Internet User
 Blog readers spend 23 hours online
(versus 13)
 Blog readers are 11% more likely to have
household incomes of $75,000 or more
Free blogs:
•Thoughts.com
•Blogspot.com
•livejournal.com
•Many others…
How do I use this?

Have your director write his/her thoughts
on a given subject
 Invite
commentary (start that two-way
dialogue)

Supplement your newsletter, don’t
necessarily replace it
Building Networks (linkedin, plaxo)
Allows you to stay informed about
what’s happening with your
contacts or within your industry. It
also helps you find the right,
knowledgeable people, which help
you achieve your goals
LinkedIn is an interconnected network of
experienced professionals from around the
world, representing 170 industries and 200
countries.
 You can find, be introduced to, and
collaborate with qualified professionals
that you need to work with to accomplish
your goals.

OR…..

Simply use Linkedin to build a network of
your supporters, volunteers or interested
parties
How should I use it ?
Sign up
 Connect to your supporters
 Find out who THEY are connected
 …build your network

Share, Share – that’s Fair !
Sharing your information
Flickr is a popular photo-sharing and hosting
service with advanced and powerful features. It
supports an active and engaged community
where people share and explore each other's
photos. You can share and host hundreds of your
own pictures on Flickr without paying a dime
(there's also a pro service that gets you unlimited
storage and sharing for about $2 a month)
YouTube

Lee Gomes from "The Wall Street Journal" estimated
there are more than
6 million videos on YouTube
and the amount of time people
have spent the site since it
launched adds up
to 9,305 years. Which means
not only do you have a huge
audience, it's also a highly
engaged one.
Brand Channels
Brand Channels include all standard community
functionality, helping brands become an organic part of
the YouTube's fabric. Key aspects include:

YouTube allows "Subscriptions." When a brand adds
new videos to its channel, subscribers are notified,
helping build audience.

Ability to host contests and encourage users to submit
their own content.
Get Creative
Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's "The Colbert
Report" issued a challenge to his audience. He shot
a video of himself on a green screen for fans to
download and edit in any way they wanted. He asked
people to submit the videos to his fan site. Many of
the videos have also shown up on YouTube. The
result has been phenomenal. One video alone on
YouTube has been viewed almost 700,000 times
There’s a lot out there….









Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
Plaxo
Ning
Wiki’s and blogs
Flickr
YouTube
PBWiki
ganis@us.ibm.com
(slides available at: http://www.slideshare.net/ganis)